Rangers Sign All-Star Infielder to Gear Up for Playoff Run

The Texas Rangers may still have 43 regular season games to play, but with a 3.5-game lead over the Astros in the AL West, fans already have most of their attention turned toward the postseason.

It's not only the fans, either. The Rangers made a key roster move to bolster their veteran leadership, signing free agent infielder Josh Harrison on Tuesday.

Josh Harrison Rangers Signing

Harrison has been inked to a minor league deal for now, and he'll play in Triple-A Round Rock to shake off the rust and get up to full-speed in time for the postseason. According to his agent, he's been signed to work at the second and third base spots.

The 36-year-old Harrison struggled to produce in Philly earlier this season, so Rangers fans shouldn't get ahead of themselves with being too hyped up about adding the two-time All-Star. But bringing him in with over a month of time to potentially get up to speed at the Triple-A level makes this a really low-risk signing.

If he plays like he did earlier in the year then we don't necessarily need to make the roster space for him, but if he can look more like the 2021/2022 version of himself (batted .269 with a .331 on-base percentage), then that modest production mixed with his veteran leadership could make him a key cog in a World Series run.

Harrison won't be taking Marcus Semien's playing time or anything, but having another option to rotate in toward the bottom of the lineup with Ezequiel Duran and Josh H. Smith will provide some flexibility.

The Rangers are already heavy favorites to win the AL West, so it makes sense for the organization to be focusing a little more on what's going to happen in October than on the remaining regular season action. We don't want to get complacent and somehow let the Astros come crawling back, but we also don't want to focus too much on being paper champs in the regular season.

This move isn't going to shift the Rangers' World Series odds in any significant way, but it's one of those sneaky additions that can pay dividends come playoff time.

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